Miking and mixing piano is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of mixing audio at a house of worship. Over the decade that I’ve been working in churches, I’ve experimented with numerous different techniques for capturing the piano and ultimately placing it into my mixes.
Whether you are mixing traditional or contemporary worship music, the piano is a critical part of the worship experience. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on microphones to capture a piano. I’ve successfully used everything from Shure SM57s and SM81s, AKG C1000s and C414s and DPA 4061s. The fact is that you don’t have to break the bank to get a beautiful sound out of your church’s piano.
The Environment and Surroundings
In virtually every modern church, the acoustic environment plays a huge role in how a piano is miked and mixed. Before setting out on your quest to find the perfect piano miking technique, do some critical thinking about the space you are mixing in and the style of music you are mixing. First, what are the acoustics like in the worship space? Is it a highly reverberant space with a 2-plus second decay time, or are you in a newer contemporary worship facility with closer to a 1-second decay? That alone will have a big impact on how the piano is miked, how much reverb is used on it, and how it is placed in the mix.
Second, what style of music are you typically mixing when using a piano? Are the services traditional worship-oriented, which tend to be more piano-centric; or contemporary music, where the piano plays more of a supporting role? My church does a bit of both, but on a typical Sunday we’re primarily using a grand piano in our traditional worship services where the piano is the primary instrument backing our choir. Finally, ask yourself if the piano will be played open or closed. Personally, I prefer the sound of a fully opened piano lid, but we typically only open to the short stick, for aesthetic reasons more than anything.
If you’re in an environment with a lot of adjacent instruments, especially loud ones like a drum kit or guitar amplifiers, you may want to close your piano’s lid completely to achieve the best possible isolation. If you primarily use the piano with the lid open, there are a lot more options for microphones because you can use boom stands to hold and place the mics. However, if the lid is typically closed, consider mics that are designed to also work in that application, such as the Earthworks PM40, DPA 4099P or 4061 or Audio-Technica’s new ATM350a.
Mic Selection and Placement
The piano is a diverse instrument, and as such, there are an equally diverse set of ways to capture it. Those options are somewhat limited in a sound reinforcement environment due to conditions such as onstage bleed and gain-before-feedback challenges. Having experimented with many different placements and microphones, my current setup is the trusty spaced pair of AKG C414s, set to cardioid, one over the low strings about half way back from the dampers, and one over the mid strings a bit closer to the dampers. This results in a well-balanced sound that gives me the full response of the piano. If needed, I’ve found that I can move the treble mic a bit closer to the hammers for more attack, which helps the piano cut through the mix during dense instrumental or vocal passages.
Five Proven Techniques
Here are a few common options for miking piano to check out.
• A single microphone, or a spaced A-B pair on boom stands outside of the piano, pointed into the fully open lid. This technique works well for recording piano by itself but has little applicability to live sound reinforcement. That said, it’s worth experimenting with if you have the time just to see how it sounds. These mics can be anything from an SM57 to a high-end condenser.
• A single microphone on a short boom underneath piano, pointed up at the soundboard. This technique yields quite different results depending on the exact placement. Again, experimentation is the key. I’ve never gotten great results with this technique by itself, but I’ve had some success blending it in with another pair of mics on top of the strings. This mic position gives duller, darker sound than mics overtop of the strings, but mixed in with another pair of mics it can add some warmth in the low midrange.
• A stereo microphone configuration, typically XY or ORTF, 10 to 12 inches over the strings and mid-way back on the frame. This is best achieved with a pair of condensers on a stereo mounting bar (check out the Grace Spacebar if you need a new piece of gear to drool over in 2017) or with a pair of microphones that are fixed in a stereo configuration, such as a Schoeps MSTC 64U. The ORTF technique specifically is very common and achieves excellent sounding results.
• A single or pair of boundary microphones (think Beta 91) attached to the underside of the piano’s open lid. Adjust the lid height and the position of the mics over the bass and treble strings to get different sounds. Move the mics closer to the dampers for more attack and further from the dampers for less attack. As with any of these mic techniques, be careful of getting too close to the hammers or you’ll hear their mechanical sounds and noises.
• Miniature microphones such as DPA 4061’s on surface mounts attached to the frame and placed near the sound holes. I used this technique for several years with excellent results by placing one microphone near the high hole and one further back near the lower hole. The placement of the surface mounts is easily adjustable (they are magnetic) so experimentation is easy. Don’t be turned off by the fact that these miniature mics are often omnidirectional! Even though it may go against everything you know as a live engineer, in this application it works well, and I had few gain-before-feedback issues.
Give It a Try!
As with anything in live sound, experimentation is the key to success. The acoustic environment and style of music play such a crucial role that there are no hard and fast rules for how to capture a piano. Try out different techniques using the microphones you have on hand, and don’t’ be afraid to ask manufacturers for demos before you make a large investment in new piano microphones.
Vince Lepore is the technical director at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Orlando and teaches live production at Full Sail University.
